Riley Keough is the king of rock and roll. One of Hollywood’s fastest-rising stars is the oldest grandchild of Elvis Presley and the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley. After getting her first part in “The Runaways” in 2010, Keough went on to play parts in three Steven Soderbergh projects, such as “Magic Mike” in 2012 and “The Girlfriend Experience” on STARZ. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the series as Christine, an emotionally distant high-end escort.
Soderbergh told Vogue, “I also directed him in the 2017 dark comedy “Logan Lucky.” “She can act in a way that makes it seem like she doesn’t know the camera is on her,” he said. “You feel like you’re following her around.” Keough became known as the queen of horror movies with movies like “It Comes at Night,” “Under the Silver Lake,” and “The Lodge,” which came out in 2019. In the 2020 movie “Zola,” which was inspired by social media, Keough was praised for her role as Stefani, a very offensive stripper.
Even though her younger brother Benjamin Keough and her mother both died within a few years of each other, “The Terminal List” actor Keough seems to be doing very well. In the much-anticipated 2023 Prime Video series “Daisy Jones & The Six,” Keough plays the title character, Daisy Jones, in her first musical role. Here’s everything you need to know about the new star.
Table Of Content
- 1 She grew up in two very different worlds
- 2 She started modeling as a teenager
- 3 The Runaways was Riley Keough’s first break
- 4 The actor worked with Steven Soderbergh three times
- 5 The Girlfriend Experience was Riley Keough’s breakout role
- 6 Mellie in Logan Lucky was another memorable role
- 7 Riley Keough appeared in five films in 2018
- 8 Her performance in The Lodge earned rave reviews
- 9 Riley Keough was ‘totally debilitated’ after her brother’s death
- 10 Riley Keough made her directorial debut with War Pony
- 11 How Lisa Marie Presley inspired her
- 12 What happens now with Graceland?
- 13 Riley Keough shows off her vocal chops in Daisy Jones & The Six
She grew up in two very different worlds
Riley’s parents broke up after being together for six years, and she went back and forth between her mom’s nice house in California and her dad’s small house in Hawaii. “In my father’s apartments, there were mattresses on the floor. She told The Guardian, “He lived in cabins and trailer parks. When I was about eight, I told him, ‘When I grow up, I want to be poor like you,’… I didn’t know how incredibly hurtful that was!”
A few weeks after she and Danny split up, Presley married Michael Jackson. Even though they were only married for two years, Riley went to Neverland a lot when she wasn’t at home or at Graceland. (At the time, there were claims that Jackson had sexually abused children.)
Riley’s security detail kept an eye on her at school in the San Fernando Valley. Her childhood of moving around made it hard for her to keep up with her schoolwork. She chose to homeschool instead, and in the end, she didn’t even finish high school. The star told InStyle, “It’s a shame because I really wanted an education and I really wanted to go to college, but my lifestyle didn’t let me.”
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She started modeling as a teenager
Riley Keough has said that being a “nephew baby” helped her in many ways. Even though her grandfather died before she was born, she had a famous mom and two famous stepdads: Michael Jackson, who won 15 Grammys (including the Lifetime Achievement Award and Legend Award), and Nicolas Cage, who won an Oscar. Keough told The Guardian that his ties to Elvis Presley were helpful, explaining: “I’m very privileged. Like the usual story of moving to L.A. and having to look for an agent for three years? I got one in a week.”
Keough started modelling when she was a teenager, and she did well at it. She walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana and was chosen to be the face of the Christian Dior perfume. “I have always wanted to have my own money, not my family’s. I don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that I’m Elvis’ granddaughter. My motivation wasn’t “I need to get away from my family’s history!” I wanted to save money so that I could go to film school “Keough said so to Esquire. That, however, never happened. The smart but quiet young woman still decided to try acting after seeing Nicole Kidman in “Moulin Rouge” and being moved by her performance.
Her agents set up auditions for her, but she was so nervous that she never showed up. When she was asked to read for the 2010 movie, “The Runaways, I was so nervous I almost passed out,” Keough said. It seemed like the worst thing I had ever done.” After getting the part, Keough wasn’t sure of her skills and wouldn’t even call herself an actor.
The Runaways was Riley Keough’s first break
In “The Runaways,” the story is told of the real-life all-girl rock band of teenagers that gave Joan Jett her start. Kristen Stewart plays the rock star, and Riley Keough plays Marie Currie, the sister of Cherie Currie, who is the lead singer of the band and is played by Dakota Fanning. The movie, which is based on Cherie Currie’s book “Neon Angel,” was made with help from Joan Jett. “…this all-girl rock band biopic hits all the right notes in all the right places,” wrote Screen Anarchy, though the movie got mixed reviews overall.
After “The Runaways,” it was hard for Keough to get jobs, and she had to deal with one failed audition after another. She told The Guardian, “Being turned down just makes me work harder to prove myself.”
With “The Good Doctor,” work started up again. Diane Nixon, played by Keough, is a patient with a kidney infection with whom Orlando Bloom’s character, a doctor, has a not-so-healthy relationship. The movie only got a 31% rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, which was disappointing. Keough then starred with Juno Temple in “Jack and Diane,” a sexually explicit love story about LGBTQ teens. Keough told The Hollywood Reporter, “The characters seem more written.” “I like doing things that give me a little bit more to do.” Most critics didn’t like Bradley Rust Gray’s movie, but for Keough, this was just the beginning.
The actor worked with Steven Soderbergh three times
With Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike” in 2012, Riley Keough went from being a favourite in small films to being a big star in big studio movies. Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey star in this close-up look at the world of male erotic dancers. Nora, who is played by Keough, is a stripper who falls in love with one of the other dancers (Alex Pettyfer). Reid Carolin, a writer and producer, told The Hollywood Reporter, “Her character is young and very wild, kind of like a siren who lures Alex’s character down the rabbit hole.” Keough loved working with the cast and crew of the R-rated movie that was a big hit at the box office. Keough told Den of Geek, “When you go to work on ‘Magic Mike,’ there are a bunch of guys in thongs and spray tans, which just puts everyone in a good mood.” Us Weekly says that Keough and Pettyfer also dated in real life, and that they were engaged for less than a year.
Keough was in the 2015 movie “Mad Max: Fury Road” with Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. Keough plays Capable, one of Immortan Joe’s wives who is being held captive in the post-apocalyptic saga. The actor said (via Hey U Guys) that one of the movie’s main ideas is that women are very strong and kind of take over men. “…these women who are kind of held back from doing something very brave and strong and getting away.”
People says that Keough met her future husband, Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen, on the set of “Mad Max.” “He is strong, loyal, calm, and sensitive. He’s my best buddy “In an essay for Vogue Australia, Keough said.
The Girlfriend Experience was Riley Keough’s breakout role
Riley Keough’s big break came in 2016 when “The Girlfriend Experience,” a TV version of Soderbergh’s 2009 movie, became a hit. Keough played Christine Reade, a law student who gets drawn into the world of high-end sex workers and ends up working the night shift, in Season 1 of the Starz anthology series. Keough told Vulture, “I liked the idea of playing a lead female character on a TV show who isn’t super-likeable, sweet, brave, and courageous.” “She likes to be in charge and is self-centered, and she does things you think about but don’t actually do.”
Soderbergh made an artistic comment about how many layers of story he sees in Keough. “That’s what you get with Riley; you really get the feeling that there’s more going on behind what she’s showing and what the story is showing.” Keough was nominated for a Golden Globe for her praised performance in the three-season TV show.
In “It Comes at Night,” a psychological thriller that came out the next year, Keough starred with Christopher Abbott. They play the parents of a young boy who seeks shelter in a stranger’s home after a mysterious disease has destroyed the world. “This movie works because everyone cares so much about the relationships between these people,” Keough told Film Ink. “They live together. If they were just random people in a house, their deaths wouldn’t mean as much.”
Mellie in Logan Lucky was another memorable role
In “Logan Lucky,” a heist comedy from 2017, Riley Keough plays Mellie, a hairdresser who is the younger sister of Channing Tatum and Adam Driver. According to Den of Geek, in this movie, she gets pulled into the team of low-rent criminals that her dumb brothers have put together to try to rob a NASCAR race. “Soderbergh gives you a lot of freedom to go where you want. He doesn’t really care what you do when you act “Keough said to the news source. She also said, “I couldn’t figure out who Mellie was, which was exciting.” “I didn’t know if she was supposed to be a girly girl or a tough race car driver. I liked that I wasn’t sure about everything.” The director of the “Oceans” trilogy did well w ith the movie.
Keough was also in “American Honey,” a movie about a road trip that starred Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf.
Keough plays Krystal, the leader of a group of teens who travel across the country selling magazine subscriptions for money and getting into trouble along the way. The actor had been a fan of the British director for a long time. He also directed Season 2 of “Big Little Lies.” “Andrea’s movies are so honest that you can really feel it in that part of your soul where you’re always trying to feel something,” Keough told Variety. “… She gets life on film.”
Riley Keough appeared in five films in 2018
Riley Keough told The Guardian in a 2017 interview, “I’m a workaholic.” She wasn’t making things up. In four movies that year, she was the star. The busy actor was in five movies in 2018. In the HBO movie “Paterno,” which is about the troubled Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, Keough plays the reporter who found out about the alleged sexual misconduct. She told ET, “It’s amazing that a young woman was able to break this story.” “What she did was really cool. She kind of brought this empire down, which was a crazy thing to do.” She didn’t take it lightly that she was playing a real person who was looking into a big scandal. The actor said, “It’s a very specific kind of pressure because it’s a real person and you don’t want to let them down.”
Keough also worked with Andrew Garfield, who played Spider-Man in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” in the noir black comedy “Under the Silver Lake.” He plays an obsessive slacker who finds a dangerous plot while looking into the disappearance of her character. Critics weren’t very enthusiastic about the movie, which was directed by David Robert Mitchell.
Even though she had a lot on her plate, Keough tweeted that she wanted to be cast in “Riverdale” on The CW. In Season 7, the actor played a mysterious woman named Laurie Lake who Archie and Jughead meet. Wishes do sometimes come true.
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Her performance in The Lodge earned rave reviews
Riley Keough has liked scary movies since she was a kid and even made her own at home. She told Vogue, “When I found out that ketchup could be used as blood, I went crazy.” In an interview with ET, she said, “I think the roles in the horror, thriller, psychological thriller, or whatever scripts I’ve been reading are really interesting to me.” “The Lodge” will probably use one of those scripts in 2019.
Keough plays a soon-to-be stepmom in the psychological thriller with “The Hobbit” actor Richard Armitage (above), and critics loved her performance.
The Los Angeles Times said, “Keough, an actress who can grab and hold the screen with electrifying force… but who is no less powerful in her quieter, more hidden moments,” was the movie’s best part.
When the 2020 movie’s director, Janicza Bravo, sent her the script, “Zola,” Keough told Vogue in 2021. “The only thing I asked Janicza was, ‘Can I really do it?'” She said, “Yes, of course!” We wanted her to be as wild, rude, and loud as we could make her.” In the movie, Keough plays a stripper named Stefani who talks too much. The movie is based on a famous Twitter thread from 2015. Bravo, another director who liked Keough’s work, told The New York Times, “She’s one of those actors who gets into character so easily that it almost doesn’t look like acting.”
Riley Keough was ‘totally debilitated’ after her brother’s death
In the early days of the pandemic, Riley Keough was out of work a lot, like many other actors. Then bad luck hit, and her younger brother Benjamin Keough killed himself in July 2020, when he was 27 years old. Riley told The New York Times in 2021, after the death of her brother, “I couldn’t get out of bed for the first four or five months. I was completely unable to move. For two weeks, I couldn’t say a word.”
Riley said that her husband and her friends helped her get through it. She also became a death doula, which is a person who helps people who are grieving by giving them support, information, and advice. “Being able to put myself in a position to help has really helped me. If I can help other people, I might be able to figure out how to help myself “she told me. Riley wrote on Instagram, “Happy Birthday, beautiful angel,” on the day that Benjamin would have turned 28.
His friend Brandon Howard told People that Benjamin had trouble with his mental health and the stress of living in the shadow of one of the most famous rock and roll families ever. During a podcast interview, “Riley told Marc Malkin of Variety, “I think people have certain ideas about what mental health looks like, and I think that’s really what I’ve always wanted to say about him. Everyone who knew him knew that, but he was just a magical person.”
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Riley Keough made her directorial debut with War Pony
“War Pony” was Riley Keough’s first project as a director in 2022. She worked on it with Gina Gammell, who was also a producer on the film. Keough told Variety and Kering at a Women in Motion event in Cannes that the idea for the coming-of-age story came to her on the set of “American Honey” five years earlier. Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, were two of the local actors in the show.
When the two women met the young men and became friends with them, they started thinking about doing a project about the locals’ lives. “We didn’t have a clear goal. We had no idea we would be going to Cannes, “Keough said. The movie did have its world premiere at Cannes in 2022, where it got good reviews. The Guardian called it a “thrilling story of love and money on a Native American reservation.”
At Cannes, “War Pony” was also named “top dog.” It’s called the Palm Dog award, and it’s given to the dog with the best performance at the festival. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the award went to Brit, the cute silver poodle in the movie. In Amazon’s new thriller series “The Terminal List,” which started that summer, Keough plays Chris Pratt’s wife. She plays Lauren Reece, a top athlete and mother who helps her husband’s SEAL platoon and the other families in it.
How Lisa Marie Presley inspired her
Lisa Marie Presley died of a heart attack on January 12, 2023, when she was 54 years old. Riley Keough’s husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, read a poem Riley wrote about her mom at a memorial service at Graceland. Keough was in the front row. “I remember what it was like to be loved by the kindest mother I’ve ever had. Thank you for showing me that love is the most important thing in life. I hope I can love my daughter as much as you loved me and my brothers and sisters “the part of the speech that said (per People). Smith-Petersen felt the same way as Keough about her mother.
Lisa Marie’s life was not easy or what seemed to be a happy one. She was following in the footsteps of the famous Elvis Presley.
The singer-songwriter had trouble with an addiction, and the New York Post says she had four failed marriages. Presley was also smart and strong. She didn’t let anyone push her around.
Keough talked about how her mother, Lisa Marie, influenced her work on a new project before her mother died. In a talk with People before her role in “Daisy Jones & The Six,” Keough said. “I was raised by someone who did their own thing and didn’t really care what other people thought. She definitely gave me a lot to think about.”
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What happens now with Graceland?
After her grandparents, Vernon and Minnie-Mae Presley, died, Graceland went to Lisa Marie Presley alone. After Lisa Marie died, her representative told ET that Elvis’ house would go to Riley Keough and her twin sisters, Harper and Finley Lockwood. Since then, Priscilla Presley has questioned the legality of her daughter’s will, which was changed in 2016 to make Riley and her brother Benjamin co-trustees instead of her and Lisa Marie’s former manager, Barry Siegel. This was reported by the Los Angeles Times.
After Priscilla filed court documents in California, a source told ET, “Riley wants to keep the family together and keep Lisa Marie’s legacy in a good light, but she feels that her grandmother’s actions are pushing the family even further apart.” “Lisa always wanted Riley and Benjamin to be the beneficiaries of the trust, and that was no secret,” the source said, adding, “[Her] children meant the world to her, and she would do anything for them.” Some legal experts say that Priscilla has a strong case.
The former “Dallas” star brought up several problems with the change to the will, such as the fact that Lisa Marie’s signature might have been forged. Priscilla said that the original trust required her to get the change before her daughter died, but she had never gotten it before. Also, her name was supposedly spelled wrong. “The case law is pretty clear,” attorney Cynthia Brittain of Karlin & Peebles told the Los Angeles Times, “if everything is as they said it was.”
Riley Keough shows off her vocal chops in Daisy Jones & The Six
Riley Keough may have landed the biggest role of her career when “Daisy Jones & The Six” on Prime Video comes out in March 2023. Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling book, the limited series is about a made-up rock band from the 1970s that wants to be the next Fleetwood Mac. “We talked about her singing and her grandfather, and she kind of said, ‘You know, I know I have it in me, but I really don’t sing outside the shower,'” series co-producer Lauren Levy Neustadter told Vanity Fair about Keough’s voice.
When her agents first told her about the role, Keough said, “I was put on this earth to be Daisy.” She told The New York Times, “I related to Daisy’s art and how she felt about not being taken seriously when she was a young woman.” Keough had never been a singer before, so she had to learn how to sing like a rock star to get the part. It was hard for her to get there.
The star said that it wasn’t easy to learn music for the role. The actor told Vanity Fair, “I’m going to this vocal coach, and he’s going to teach me how to f***ing belt, whatever I need to do to get this.” The show’s trailer shows Keough rocking out to “Regret Me.” Fans are likely to be impressed by how good he is at it. Sam Clafin, who played her co-star in “Enola Holmes,” said, “Seeing her come to life in that role is just, I mean, it’s mesmerising, it’s magic.”
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